Drawing on fieldwork that spans nearly twenty years, this offers a rare portrayal of ordinary family life in Damascus, Syria. It explores how women draw on cultural ideals around gender, religion, and family to negotiate a sense of collective and personal identity. Emphasising the ability of women to manage family relationships, Gallagher highlights how personal and material resources shape women's choices and constraints concerning education, choice of marriage partner, employment, childrearing, relationships with kin, and the uses and risks of new information technologies.

Sally K. Gallagher is professor of sociology at Oregon State University. She is author of Evangelical Identity and Gendered Family Life and Older People Giving Care: Helping Family and Community as well as numerous journal articles on gender, family, and care.